134 BULLETIN" 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



likely that some of the pairs are already mated when they arrive, for the 

 sex organs are fully developed and ready to function upon their arrival. 



In northeastern Greenland the time of arrival is about the same, 

 for A. L. Manniche (1910) writes: 



The knots arrived at the Stormkap territory in couples at exactly the same 

 time as did the other waders ; in two summers, respectively, on June 2 and 

 May 28. "While the sanderlings, dunlins, turnstones, and ringed plovers im- 

 mediately took to the sparsely occurring spots free from snow, the knots would 

 prefer to go to the still snow-covered hollows in the marshes and moors, 

 where I saw them running on the snow eagerly occupied in picking up the 

 seed of Carex- and Luzula-tufts the ends of which here and there appeared 

 over the snow. This sandpiper more than its relatives, feeds on plants at 

 certain seasons. In the first days I also observed now and then a couple 

 of knots on snowless spots on elevated table-lands and even on the top of 

 the high gravel banks at Stormkap. These may, however, have settled there 

 in order to rest after the voyage and not to search food. As soon as ponds of 

 melting snow and fresh-water beaches free from ice were to be found, the 

 knots would resort to these, and here the birds wading or swimming looked 

 for animal diet. In this season the knot did not appear on the salt-water 

 shore like other waders. Gradually as more extensive stretches of low-lying 

 table-land became free from snow, the knots occurred more frequently here 

 in their real nesting quarters ; they would, however, still for a while often visit 

 moors and marshes with a rich vegetation of Cyperaceae. 



Courtship. — Doctor Ekblaw describes this as follows: 

 The courtship is brief but ardent. Whether it is the females that woo the 

 males, as among the phalaropes, or as normally the males that woo the fe- 

 males, it is difficult to determine, for the breeding plumages of the two sexes 

 are quite indistinguishable. On June 3, 1916, I observed closely the courtship 

 of three knots high up on one of the plateaus of Numataksuah, back of North 

 Star Bay. Two males (?) were evidently pursuing one female (?), she lead- 

 ing, they winging rapidly in her wake, contending as they flew; apparently 

 all uttered the shrill piercing call to which the knots so frequently give voice 

 during the mating and nesting season of early summer, and which one rarely, 

 if ever, hears after the young are hatched. In great circles they flew, now 

 and then stooping to a zigzag pirouetting and dodging, again rising in wide 

 circles until they disappeared from sight in the bright sky, though their shrill 

 calls came to earth as sharp and clear as ever. 



In the ecstasy of the mating season a single bird may indulge himself (?) 

 in a kind of dance flight alone. He rises high above the hills, sweeping the 

 sky in great graceful circles not unlike the stately flight of the sparrow hawk, 

 so smooth and calm it seems. From time to time he utters the shrill, clarion 

 call of the mating season, or the soft coo-yee that is most common about the 

 nesting grounds. Then suddenly he drops wildly, tumbling and tossing like 

 a night jar at sunset, as suddenly to break his fall and soar for miles on still, 

 outstretched wings, not a movement noticeable. 



Mr. Manniche (1910) refers to it as follows: 



The male suddenly gets up from the snow-clad ground, and producing the 

 most beautiful flutelike notes, following an oblique line with rapid wing strokes, 

 mounts to an enormous height often so high that he can not be followed with 

 the naked eye. Up here in the clear frosty air he flies around in large circles 

 on quivering wings and his melodious far-sounding notes are heard far and 



